I will be traveling to Iceland, Spain,Italy and Georgia next week. I got this converter on Amazon which worked well when i visited Malaysia: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045RU68U/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&redirect=true Will this work well in Europe as well?
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32214 posts
Dmitri, To begin with, are you sure that you'll even need a Voltage Converter? What type of appliances will you be using with it? The product you mentioned should work fine in Europe. It seems to be supplied with a standard two-pin Euro plug so you shouldn't need other Plug Adapters. I suspect the Seven Star Voltage Converter shown in the link was manufactured in China or elsewhere "off shore", so the construction may not be especially robust and there's probably not much of a "safety margin" in the ratings. I'd suggest NOT leaving it connected for long periods of time, or when you're out of the room. The reviews on Amazon seemed to be a bit "mixed". Title lines stating "Smoke, Fire, Run!" or comments like "The first time I plugged it in it started smoking and burned up" don't inspire much confidence! In order to provide more detailed suggestions, it would really help to know what appliances you'll be using in Europe. Happy travels!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19099 posts
About the converter you show: It will probably "work well" on the Europeen continent, but that doesn't mean it will be safe. It has a standard, US style, grounding, polarized receptacle. However, it has an unpolarized, non-grounding, European plug. Some US appliances use a grounding plug to provide some sort of protection. All that protection would be lost with this converter. Most US appliances use polarization to provide some sort of protection. European receptacles are not polarized, and, even if they were, the plug on this converter can be plugged in two ways, so the protection provided by polarization could be lost. In essense, this device will defeat any protection that grounding or polarization might have provided. Your grounded or polarized appliances would never have been approved by UL without that protection. Now, if all of your appliances have "double insulation", as indicated by a square-inside-a-square-symbol, you'd be safe, but few in this country do. You really should get appliances over there that are double insulated, or that don't need a converter, or get a different converter. Incidentally, I just returned from Germany/Czech where I used a netbook that has a three-prong (grounding) plug. I got a grounding modified Schuko adapter to use in the receptacles over there. However, one of my hosts, who by profession is a computer programmer, told me that the Schuko receptacles only needs the ground to be connected in bathrooms. (I guess I could have charged my netbook in the bathroom.)